Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

CANADA #233: Treeline feedbacks and feedwards to climate  (Treefeeds)

Outline
Climate change will change the position and structure of the northern treeline ecotone. Under other words it is probable that the treeline is shifting north and that the forests in the tundra taiga interface will get denser. Prediction of these processes would make necessary a better understanding of what limits tree growth in the vicinity of its northern limits. This understanding and consensus is presently lacking. Körner (1998 Oecologia) presented five different hypotheses on what limits tree growth on its northern boarders. A network of experimental manipulations is required to determine the relative importance of different factors at the treeline. Understanding of these limitations from the experiments will be integrated in vegetation models and result in better prediction of ecosystem functioning. Furthermore, changes in forest density in the treeline ecotone will have implications for climate. We anticipate that a main effect will be changes in albedo during winter, when evergreen conifer forests will get denser. These could lead to further warming of polar climates during late winter. In the project we will establish a network of manipulation experiments that will lead to an enhanced understanding of what limits the growth of sub-arctic forests. We will reconstruct stand development histories from aerial photographs and field work to understand changes of stand structure during the past fifty years and monitor albedo and its changes with stand structure and climate for a network of monitoring sites. Albedo results will be used in connection with GCM and regional climate models to understand the feedback of treeline changes to global climate. The manipulation experiments will be used in connection with existing ecosystem and landscape models for prediction treeline advances in future climate.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
We address the IPY themes: STATUS: we try to understand current determinants of the treeline and understand treeline functioning CHANGE We predict responses of the ecotone to climate changes LINKAGE We investigate links between the structure of the treeline ecotone and the climate syste,

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
We would assemble project partners from Canada (Berninger, Bégin), Scandinavia (Hari, Callaghan, Laine, Körner), Russia (Shibistova) and Great Britain (Lloyd, Grace), Australia (Beringer)

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
Lapland, Northern Québec, Labrador, Siberia

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: 04/07-09/08            
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
Helicopter transport, aerial photograph resurveying of previously photographed areas, aircraft flights for albedo measurements

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
Weather stations, permanent sample plots with known stand history through photogrammetric interpretation

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
Consortium
Commercial operator
Own support

Transport will be bought from local operators

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
No

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
Yes

New autonomous proposal, parts have been tested by a project of Frank Berninger in Finland (Determinants of the treeline, funded by the Helsinki University Foundation)

How will the project be organised and managed?
The project would be funded through a series of autonomous projects in Canada, Scandinavia, Russia and Finland funded. There would be a steering committee to assure harmonisation of experimental work, field measurement and photogrammetric work.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
The project would organise an arctic treeline course for master and doctoral students in northern Canada. There would be a project WEB site with a section aiming at education of secondary school children.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
Data would be deposited in a common database and will be made available under request to other researchers

How is it proposed to fund the project?
No secured funding, we would apply funding through NSERC (150 000 $ /yr) the Finnish Academy (150 000 $ /yr) INTAS (Russia) (60 000 $ /yr) and NERC (UK) (100 000 $ /yr)

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
None

PROPOSER DETAILS

Professor Frank Berninger
Université du Québec à Montréal
CP8888
Succ Centre Ville

Canada

Tel: 1 514 987 3000 ext 1644
Mobile: no
Fax: (514) 987 4647
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation